No One Should Have To Bury Their Child
Why do we fight so hard to save a world that is patently unworthy of being saved? A world where injustice is the rule, not the exception? Justify your existence, humanity, when as far as we know all of the worst moral atrocities in history have all been committed by members of the human race. What makes us worthy of even the attempt to save us from damnation?
Last week, a father buried his sons. Ariel and Kfir Bibas were laid to rest along with their mother Shiri, and every human being with a soul cried out at the inhumanity of it all. How can we justify our existence when we allow our fellow humans to rampage across landscapes and homes, killing, raping, maiming, and kidnapping, and taking an entire family hostage only to kill the mother and children with their bare hands. How can there be any redemption for creatures such as us? There is no justice in this life; not for Yarden, not for Shiri, not for Ariel and Kfir. No revenge is adequate for the death of a child. There can be no justice delivered, because the dead cannot be brought back.
My outrage is useless. I cannot bring the dead back to life. I cannot help Yarden. No one can. We can mourn alongside him, but we cannot help him.
Humanity at its worst is of such a nature that I am unsure if it can be outweighed by humanity at its best. I no longer believe that humans are intrinsically good; I think I used to once upon a time, but reality has hit like a freight train post-October 7th. There are monsters among us. They need only find an outlet like antisemitism allows and they will destroy everything we hold dear. They will celebrate the deaths of children and their mother—Hamas held an entire circus over their coffins—so long as those children and their mother are Jewish. Shame on the world. Shame on humanity. I disavow every part of us that allows for this unspeakable evil.
Four bodies were returned last Wednesday to Israel; four more murdered Jews to add to the list. Rest in peace to Itzik Elgart, Tsahi Idan, Ohad Yahalomi, and Shlomo Mansour. Each name had a face. Each name had a story. Each name has a family and friends that grieve. If anyone can sit in judgment of humanity, it is you who mourn. Are we worthy of continuing to exist? Is humanity irredeemable in your eyes? I will make no argument justifying your pain to allow for my continued existence. Each of the victims above carries enough injustice to damn all our souls.
The Oscars are so insignificant in comparison to world events that they hardly bear mentioning. I will just say that if your political beliefs are informed by some of the most ignorant, out-of-touch human beings on the planet…you may want to reconsider, lest you find yourself on the wrong side of a history book. Shame on every “progressive” that thinks they’re advocating for peace by wearing the symbol of lynched and disemboweled Jews à la the “bloody hand” pin. Your ignorance is no excuse. And now that symbol also represents the murders of Ariel and Kfir, which we know occurred with the blunt instrument of bare hands. Celebrate the murder of Jewish babies, you sycophants. The time will come for you to answer for your sins against Humanity. And wearing the genocidal slogan of Hamas A.K.A. “free Palestine” is hardly better. Your Jew hate is showing, Guy. It’s a shame that Memento was such a good concept movie. Although you did play the right character in King’s Speech.
There is another reason for American shame this past week; this time, from the political “right” (we really need to end that centuries-old French Revolution political convention of “left versus right”; but I digress): Trump himself violated every rule of hospitality in the book when he and ‘chubby Ted Bundy’ JD Vance tag-teamed a shameful political charade in Washington against the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Regardless of your beliefs about military aid to countries in active war, what occurred last week was enough to bring the entire might of Zeus down upon the violator of the golden rule of hospitality. It was an ambush, plain and simple. And as of now it seems we have formally ended military aid to Ukraine. America abandons its allies. Justice weeps.
Trump is appearing more and more like Chamberlain; appeasement is never the answer to violent and genocidal dictators like Putin and Xi and Khamenei. They are the ‘Axis of Evil’ in our time. They are all connected in shared complicity of crimes against humanity; including October 7th. And they must be opposed with all our strength until they are no more. ‘Si vis pacem, para bellum.’ No good will come of ending aid to Ukraine, I promise you that. It only prolongs the war; because Ukrainians will never stop fighting until Putin’s stormtroopers are expelled from all the sovereign territory of Ukraine. Russia tried for hundreds of years to break the spirit of the Ukrainian people, and they never could. They won’t in hundreds more.
Also, knock it off with that “annexing Canada” crap. It’s not funny. It’s not amusing. And it’s not going to happen, ever. Shut that down now, POTUS. The world cannot wait for you to finally mature; we live in far too dangerous of times for that.
Am Yisrael Chai, and Slava Ukraine 🇮🇱 🇺🇦